"What business do you have here?"
I pressed my freezing fingers down on the button of the intercom in front of the large iron gate. The temperatures had long since dropped and it had been a very long walk from the subway to where I was now. Up the driveway, a beautiful mansion sat imposingly on the top of the gentle slope, illuminated by the dozens of lights on inside and outside the building. Randomly, a guard or two passed by. Once upon a time, my dad worked as those guards.
"I'm here to see one of the residents of the house," I said unsurely.
"Which one?" the person on the other side asked. "If you've come to see a worker, go round your left to the servant's entrance.
I pressed the button again. "No, no. I'm here to see Miss Kay Gates or Logan Gates, whoever is around." The com went silent. "This is the Gates Manor right?"
"Yes, yes. One minute," the person grumbled but I didn't think I had a minute. I was freezing out here.
Kay and Logan Gates were the daughter and son of Andre and Emily Gates. They were a rich family dealt with tech and this is where I learned to love it from. My dad used to work as a guard here for a while but since he couldn't always leave me home alone during the holidays, I spent my time here. Kay and Logan were as close to me as any aunt and uncle I'd ever had. They were the ones who bought me my laptop on my 16th, engraved with a peach. They were the best really.
"Miss Gates does not wish to have any visitors at the moment."
The voice from the intercom brought my focus back. "Could you please tell her it's Peach McCoy?"
Silence, my old friend.
It seemed like I waited for hours before the iron gates opened.
"Come right in. She's in the second drawing room."
I walked up the driveway, my backpack bouncing. I rubbed my hands together to get some heat and prevent them from freezing completely and falling off. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the location of Viktor Makarovich. He was at my apartment. I sighed. I guess I was homeless now because there was no way I was getting back to that building. I tucked my phone away as I reached the front of the manor and the door was opened for me by a young looking butler.
I thanked him and made my way to the second drawing room. I knew this house backwards and forwards. Every room in this house was familiar to me though the one I constantly avoided was the late Andre Gates' old study. It was where him and his wife were shot dead by an unknown criminal. The case had grown cold but I wondered if not acquiring justice for their parents disturbed the two Gates siblings. There used to be three though but the last child, a girl I think her name was Delilah or Dalia. She was killed when she was just 14. Again, her case went cold as well. I always did pity the siblings for the misfortune that followed them.
When I entered the drawing room, Miss Kay was sipping wine out of a long glass, dressed in a fluffy maroon robe. When I entered she smiled and rose.
"Oh little Peach," she said softly. "It's so nice to see you darling. You've grown."
I smiled and got close. "Hi Miss Kay. It's nice to see you too."
I pulled down my hood when I begun to talk to her, causing my coily hair to bounce. My father would never talk to me if I was covering my face somehow. He said you should always be clear, direct and open when addressing someone especially one with a higher rank that you. Thinking of him made my heart ache. I should visit him but I can't. Viktor Makarovich was onto me.
"Love the hair," Miss Kay commented and then she waved and arm to the couch. "Please Peach, sit."
I did and she settled into the chair next to me. The seats were antique like everything in this room. The floor was wooden, the walls grey and filled with paintings. Everything about this place was homely. The soft orange glow of the lights, the smell of old books and the earthly colours of all the tables and furniture. Even the piano in the corner fit in with its beautiful black wood. The only thing that seemed out of place was Miss Kay because of how imposing she seemed.
Don't get me wrong, the woman was beautiful. She was about thirty seven but didn't look a day older than twenty five. Her dark mocha skin glowed with youth and it made my measly deep bronze skin pale in comparison. The woman had curves for days even hidden under robe. Her fingers were short and small while mine were long and slender. She had height on her but I was taller. Where Miss Kay's features were mostly rounded and soft, mine were sharper because of my high cheekbones and sculpted jaw.
"What is it Peach?" Miss Kay asked breaking me from my thoughts.
"You told me that if there was something I should need that you could provide, I should come," I started off.
"Well, yes. Of course. I told you that after your father..." she sighed and trailed off. "I meant what I said. I take it you're here to pull the favour I promised you."
"Yes. Sorry for coming in so late... early?"
Miss Kay smiled and leaned back in her seat, taking a sip of wine. "Please. The night is a time for me to thrive. With good... entertainment and a bottle of Madeaux, everything is well. Now, what is it you need Peach?"
I wrung my hands together. "I'm in a predicament."
"What kind?" Mis Kay pressed. "Is it soft like how my neighbours of the Helion Estate cannot keep the little wine sampling parties more private? I mean I don't mind since they are the ones who brew Madeaux and I get a free wine bottle every month. Or... are we looking at catatonic problems. Guns, murder... death."
"Catatonic," I said and she sighed.
"Are you doing what your brother was because if so you can see yourself out of my house."
I understood Miss Kay's rudeness when It came to my brother. He hadn't exactly made the best impressions wherever he went. The last time Kay had seen him according to what I knew, she was ready to marry him. She ignored the fact that she was eleven years his senior. Miss Kay had fallen and she had fallen hard. My brother played a lot with women's hearts. He had the looks, the charm, the smile... he was able to make any woman he wished, no matter how tough and entitled to fall down at his feet. I never did like this quality in him especially when he brought girls home the nights after my dad wasn't around.
"I'm not dealing. I don't have any debts but I did do something that gave me a target on my back," I confessed.
"What did you do?"
"It's best if you don't know Miss Kay," I informed her.
She looked at me hard then. Her eyes were a soft brown like chocolate but in the sun they were like honey. I'd always seen emptiness in her gaze, the kind that always came when you had something unachieved in life. For Miss Kay, I was sure that impossible goal was her own joy and happiness. She was one to only seek the pleasures of life. Lust was an amazing emotion but it didn't last long. This was something Miss Kay had learnt all on her own.
They say eyes are the window to a soul. I believe it. I'd always loved seeing what the inside of a house looked like of you just knew the right angle to gaze in through the window. That's why with anyone else, Miss Kay's gaze would be unnerving maybe even disgusted. With me, they were lonely and empty, searching for something new. That's when I saw the resolution. She would help me. She just wanted to feel in control of the situation. Her silence and assessment was supposed to tell me that she could refuse and I'd be helpless. Little did she know, with my brain, anything was possible. Maybe not surviving murder by a man who'd earned the title "The Butcher" but staying alive longer than most. In times like these, you take whet you get.
"I don't like being kept in the dark," Miss Kay said.
"If the dark is the safest place wouldn't you love to stay protected?" I retaliated and she smiled.
"This is why I always liked you Peach. You're a force of nature. Now... what exactly is your problem."
I did my best to explain that I had a tail who wanted me gone for knowing a little bit about them. I told her about how I couldn't access my account and tip them off on my plans to leave the city, the state, the country — hell I should just get off this continent.
"How is it you want me to help you?" she asked.
"I wouldn't want to lay here for a few days. That's.... stupid. I'd be putting a lot at risk. I came to you hoping you had some connections that will help me."
"I do surprisingly," Miss Kay smugly answered. "Ever heard of the Martinelli Familia? I have connections there that—"
"No!" I interrupted her with a loud panicked shout. She reeled back a little which made me get more control over my emotions. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I... The people I'm running from are connected to the Martinelli Familia. The group itself might want me dead in a few days."
Now Miss Kay looked at me like really analyzed the person sitting in front of her. "Running from such bad people Peach. It's unbecoming. I hope you're not planning to follow your brother's footsteps or worse, your father's. I can't help you. You know that right?"
The rate at which my body deflated was unimaginable. I wasn't going to outrun Viktor forever. I needed to disappear but doing something like that needed time and resources, two things I did not have. My backpack weighed heavily on my back. Inside was the cause of all of it. I shouldn't have done what I did now I was in a mess that, it seemed, not even God wanted to take part in. So this is what the end of a tunnel is like.
"Don't fret Peach," Miss Kay said. "I said I couldn't help you but that doesn't mean I don't know someone who can."
The lady stood up, her movements smooth as she picked a paper and pen from a table in the corner of the room. She scribbled down something and my heart leapt at the possibility of help. Hope really was a dangerous thing.
"Back in high school I had a friend called Katherine but everyone called her Kat. She was as sneaky as one to be honest. She could get anyone a fake ID for the right price. Last I heard, she had just finished her time in prison and wasn't doing any shady shit for anyone. Fortune hits because I paid her last bail. Technically, she owes me one. She'll help you if you tell her to... put it on my tab."
Miss Kay had returned to where I was, holding out the paper. I looked down at what she'd scribbled.
85 Olsen Street, Brookehills
"Brookehills.... Brookehills...." I mumbled trying to place the name of the place. All I got was a glimpse of a TV screen. "Is that the town that parties a lot. A couple of miles outside Las Pavita right? Something had happened there. A bombing?"
"Yep," Miss Kay said. "A warehouse just... up in flames. This must have been like what? A decade ago."
I nodded. My new issue, Las Pavita was far and Brookehills even further. "You really think this lady will help."
"I would never give you wrong information Peach. You're like a daughter to me. Against my better judgement, I want to see you alive and well."
Miss Kay's words were soft and sweet. When I looked up at her, her eyes were full of compassion.
"Thank you," I whispered truly meaning it.
"Of course. Now!" she clapped her hands and decided to change the subject. "I will braid your hair because you cannot go on the run suffering with all that. Then, you will rest until morning because you look like a hag and I'm sure you're cold. We'll pack you up and send you off tomorrow morning after you have eaten breakfast with me."
"Oh Miss Kay you don't have to do all that for me," I told her.
"I know but... there was someone in my life I couldn't protect and I hate myself everyday for it. I could've been better if things had been different. I probably wouldn't be jealous of how much she thrived and the hot Italian man she has..."
I was confused, watching Miss Kay lose herself in her own head but she shook it off.
"Anyway, back to what I was saying. Hair. Sleep. Breakfast. In that order now get comfortable Peach."
There weren't that many people in my life but I was grateful Miss Kay was one of them.